In September 2019, Bill Gates presented the Indian premiere Narendra Modi a prize on behalf of his philanthropic organization Gates Foundation for the work of an Indian leader to improve hygiene.
And turmoil followed.
The three Nobel Nobel Laureates wrote to Mr. Gates and claimed that Mr. Modi, who was awarded the UN General Assembly in New York, did not deserve recognition because democratic and human rights disrupted his government. “This is especially worrying for us, because the mission of your foundation is to preserve life and combat inequality,” the laureates wrote.
The outrage was little discouraged by Mr. Gates and Mr. Modi, who have developed an unusually warm and highly profile relationship in the last decade.
They met several times and Mr. Gates was nothing but Mr. Modim. Last year, just before the national elections, Mr. Gates sat down with Prime Minister on an extended television exchange, which Mr. Modi burned his image as a technologically proficient leader.
The relationship between Mr. Gates and Mr. Modi, according to observers, former employees of the foundation and criticism, brings benefits for both. Mr. Gates is visit India in the coming week, his third visit in three years, will meet with government leaders and others to discuss Indian innovations and progress.
“This trip gives me a chance to see what works, what is changing and what will happen next – for India and Foundation,” wrote Mr. Gates on his personal blog Gatesnotes.
India is the central point of the philanthropic work of Mr. Gates, which makes it necessary for the Gates Foundation to remain on the good side of the government, which intervened by organizations supported by foreign donors. With a huge number of Indians in terrible poverty, global development objectives in India cannot be met without progress.
The ongoing approach of the Gates Foundation to India has become all the more important, because President Trump withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization and gumped the US Agency for International Development. The WHO, which supports a number of public health programs in India, faces budget cuts after the United States. The Gates Foundation, a monster in global public health and development, is one of the best WHO donors
For Mr. Modi, the confirmation of Mr. Gates – the very face of the computer age to many Indians – is a way to link the technological heritage of Gates with the digital economy promoted by the government of Modi, the pillar of his “developed India” policy.
Mr. Modi’s desire to use technology for growth personally resonated with Mr. Gates, given his deep faith in the strength of innovation for progress, according to the contributions he wrote on Gatesnotes and two former employees with direct insight into the activities of the Foundation in India. They talked about the state of anonymity to avoid the threat to professional relationships.
Representatives of the Gates and Gates Ventures Foundation, the Private Office of the Fillantropora, did not answer the request for commentary. A spokesman for the Indian Ministry of Outside did not have an immediate comment.
Mr. Gates has sufficient society in the admission of Mr. Modi, with political and business leaders throughout Western summary India as a growing geopolitical and economic power. Many closed their eyes before the reign of Modi on the secular foundations of the country, its demonization of the Indian Muslim minority and its silence civil society.
Mr. Modi, Mr. Modi, acknowledges the world -wide recognition of his development work rather than his Hindu nationalist policy. On the domestic market, Mr. Modi has potential political benefits.
“Technically controlled parts of the Indian middle class grew with gates like this iconic figure,” said P. Sainath, an activist who is the founder and editor of the folk archive of rural India, an independent digital medium. “Being good with Bill Gates won’t hurt your image with these classes.”
Cheerleader
Indian ties with Mr. Gates and Microsoft, the company he co -founded, is running deep. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, comes from India. In January, Mr. Nadella announced plans to invest $ 3 billion in India, including artificial intelligence to help Mr. Modi’s next vision. Mr. Gates has visited India over a dozen times over decades, including Microsoft’s CEO.
The Gates Foundation based in Seattle, which started in 2000, opened its Indian office in 2003 and invested more in a country than anywhere except the United States. This year the Board of Directors will meet the Foundation in India because it celebrates its 25th anniversary.
The Foundation joined the subsequent Indian governments and supported public health initiatives such as eradication of polio. It also closely cooperates closely with the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar governments, two populous and poor Indian states. Mr. Gates sat down with previous Indian prime ministers, including the predecessor of Mr. Modi, Manmohan Singh. However, conversations were usually closely focused on the work of the Foundation in India.
Mr. Gates intervened with Mr. Modim during the first session in 2014, according to and twice as long as planned, according to A Gatesnotes post. He said he was amazed at Modi because of their joint focus on public health, especially hygiene. The toilets were “on the agenda, along with vaccines, bank accounts and health clinics”.
Open defecation and waste management remain in India with huge challenges, a country of 1.4 billion people. The government of Modi launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (mission Clean India) and until 2019 claimed to build more than 100 million toilets. That was the work for which the Foundation gave him the prize and triggered will.
When Mr. Gates traveled to India in 2023, he said his seat with Mr. Modi was the “highlight” of his visit and appreciated it in the Earth’s digital payments system. “The country shows what is possible when we invest in innovation,” he wrote on Gatesnotes.
Several people with the knowledge of the Foundation’s matters said that some employees were raised by the discovery of Mr. Gates with Mr. Modi and claimed that the foundation could promote their goals and were in line with the government’s objectives without becoming a cheerleader for the Prime Minister.
Mr. Modi also accumulated the praise of Mr. Gates and said his government had appreciated the expertise of the foundation and its approach based on data and evidence. In 2020, when they met practically during the pandemic, Mr. Modi encouraged The “take a lead” foundation in analyzing changes in health care and education needed in the post-coving world.
Last March, three weeks before the elections in which Mr. Modi was looking for the third term of office, he invited Mr. Gates to his official residence To chat about progress in the country in the use of technology to improve the life of the Indians.
The government planned to broadcast the entire meeting on national television, which addresses more than 650 million people. However, the Election Commission told public broadcasting that the party would provide the party Modi’s unfair advantage message In The Economic Times, Indian Newspapers. In the end, only parts of Mr. Modi and Mr. Gates were broadcast on television, although it was streaming in full on the website of Mr. Modi Bharatiy Janat.
A spokesman for the election commission said he had no information about the event. Rajiv Kumar, then the main election commissioner, did not respond to requests for comment.
Close adhesion of foreign donors
India has long relied on foreign donors to meet their goals. Organizations such as Amnesty International, Rotary International, Red Cross, Oxfam, USAid and Greenpeace, as well as various UN and private groups such as Ford, Rockefeller and Gates Foundations, provided financing to or worked with the local community of NGOs or cooperate.
But as the Modi Government grew into any criticism or challenge, including overseas, Indian laws that regulate the flow of foreign donors into domestic non -profit organizations, grew stricter and more commonly used.
A year after Mr Modi became prime minister in 2014, the government began intervention against foreign organizations, starting with Greenpeace. Many of them began to spread their activities or take steps to ensure that their agendas were in line with the government’s objectives.
In 2017, the Indian government accused the Indian public health foundation, one of the largest non -profit groups in the country, abuse of funds and canceled the license that allowed it to receive foreign contributions. Gates Foundation was a big donor to the organization. The health non -profit organization registered the license in 2021.
The Gates Foundation has explained that its role is to help the Indian government meet its goals by offering expertise in priority areas such as ensuring access to financial services for bad, developing women, public health and climate change.
The Foundation carefully recorded closely to this report after the price he handed over to Mr. Modi.
At that time, the Foundation stated that its price was closely focused on hygiene goals.
Not long after, Mr. Gates he met with Mr. Modi in India. According to the government press release, Mr. Gates strengthened the obligation of his foundation to support the objectives of the Indian government.
